BItcoin Sees a Stale Block

Top cryptocurrency's network double spends

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Sponsored by   January 29, 2020 Bitcoin's network witnessed an unintentional $3 double spend on Monday. The double spend wasn't due to a malicious 51% attack, but a result of a stale block event, which occurred at the block height 614,732, according to BitMEX Research. That was the first stale block since October 2019. A stale block is the one which has been mined successfully, but isn't included on the current best blockchain, likely because some other block at the same height had its chain extended further. In bitcoin's case, Poolin and Bitmain’s BTC.com were the two competing mining pools. The later's block was included in the network while Poolin's discovery was declared stale. "The stale block included 39 transactions not in the winning block. 38 of these made it into the next block 614,733. The other had an input of 0.00034801 (US$3) & appears to have been double spent," BitMEX Research showed. As noted earlier, the double spent wasn't malicious. In fact, initiating a 51 percent attack on bitcoin's network is considered next to impossible, as the hash rate required to mine blocks is in excess of 100 exahashes per second, meaning the network has grown so powerful that it can compute quintillions of hashes every single second. SPONSOR SECTION Nexo is the world’s leading crypto banking institution. With $1B processed, the company aims to maximize the value of digital assets by offering tax-efficient ‘Instant Crypto Credit Lines,’ high-yield ‘Earn Interest’ products and ‘Send & Pay’ features to our 500K+ users across 200 jurisdictions. Learn More   Above 200-day MA BTC: Price: $9,320 | Market cap: $169 billion | 24-Hr Volume: $33 billion Trend: Bullish Bitcoin convincingly crossed the 200-day price average on Tuesday, marking the first breakout above the widely-followed technical line since October. The average was breached with a positive "marubozu candle," which indicates the bullish sentiment is strong. As a result, further gains toward $10,000 could be in the offing – more so, as the weekly chart studies are also biased bullish. For instance, the MACD histogram has crossed above zero, confirming a bearish-to-bullish trend change, while the relative strength index is on an upward trajectory and is reporting bullish conditions with an above-50 reading. Its worth noting that the cryptocurrency is on track to post its biggest January gain since 2019. At press time, prices are up 30 percent on a month-to-date basis.  The surge is in line with historical data showing the cryptocurrency hits a new market cycle top (the highest point from the preceding bear market low) in the calendar year of a miner reward halving, but before the event, as discussed earlier this month. Based on that historical pattern, a further rise to levels above the June 2019 $13,880 before the May 2020 halving (supply-cutting event) cannot be ruled out. All in all, the path of least resistance is to the higher side, and pullbacks could be short-lived. That said, the case for a quick rise to $10,000 would weaken if prices drop below the 200-day average at 8,894 with strong volumes. Read Analysis In this feature of the Markets Daily newsletter, we aggregate news, reports, ideas and tweets relevant to crypto traders and investors. 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The information contained in this message, and any information liked through the items contained herein, is not intended to provide sufficient information to form the basis for an investment decision. The information presented herein is accurate only as of its date, and it was not prepared by a research analyst or other investment professional. You should seek additional information regarding the merits and risks of investing in any cryptocurrency before deciding to purchase or sell any such instruments. Copyright © 2018 CoinDesk, All rights reserved.  Our mailing address is:  250 Park Avenue South New York, NY, 10003, US  Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list